Student Competitions 24-25

Many of the activities preparing for and at these student competitions help to meet several of the Technology and Engineering standards!

ARIN will host its annual STEM Design Challenge on March 5, 2025 at the Elderton High School Gym beginning at 9:30 am and ending by 1:30 pm. This year's challenge is directly related to the UN Goal 9 Sustainable Development. In this challenge, elementary and middle school students will focus on Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (UN Sustainable Development Goal 9) by designing a prototype that addresses a real-world problem related to infrastructure, transportation, or urban development. The goal is to inspire students to think about how cities, roads, bridges, and systems can be built or improved to be more efficient, sustainable, and accessible. A change this year is that students can use Engino and/or K'Nex pieces. You can purchase the STEM Design Challenge Engino kit from this link. This event is for students in grade bands 4-5 and 6-8. The registration deadline is February 26, 2025.

Additional changes for this year:

• Because we are adding Engino, we have removed the requirements for motors and for the middle school inventory.

• Teams can use K'Nex, Engino, or a mix of both. (They don't connect together but teams could use both in their prototype.)

• The max number of pieces will still be 1400, however teams may not need as many pieces with Engino.

• String, tape and rubber bands are permitted.

The challenge for the 2025 event can be found at this link.

To register your teams for this event please click on this link. Registration deadline is February 16, 2025.

Parent--Guardian/Photo forms can be found on this link.

A link to the rubric can be found here.

There will be an $8 cost per student for lunch and awards.

The state competition will be held at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg on Friday, May 9, 2025. Projects placing 1st place in ARIN's regional event will be invited to attend the state competition.

If you have any questions please email Lori Rodgers at lrodgers@iu28.org.

ARIN will host its annual Media and Design Competition on March 26, 2025 at the Elderton High School Gym beginning at 9:30 am and ending by 1:30 pm. Students in grades 6-12 can compete in this event. Categories include 3D Design, Animation, Digital Movie, Logo and Graphic Design, Programming and Web-Page Design. Details on each category requirement can be found on the PA Media and Design website.

We follow all of the rules and use the exact scoring rubric as the state competition does. Please read all of the details carefully on the PA Media and Design Website. Uf you have any questions please contact Lori Rodgers at lrodgers@iu28.org.

To get additional information on this event and to register teams for this event please click on this link. The deadline to register is March 18, 2025.

Creativity, critical thinking, innovation, teamwork, and communication skills are recognized as the skills that prepare students for increasingly complex school, work, and life environments. To bring out the creativity of our students, ARIN will host its annual Invention Convention on November 19, 2024 at the Elderton High School Gym beginning at 9:30 am and ending by 1:30 pm. The cost to cover lunches and awards will be $8 for each participant. The link for the Parental Release form can be found here.

To register project teams for ARIN's Invention Convention please use this link. the link to the Parent Permission form.

Winners from this regional competition may be invited to advance to the PA Invention Convention thats held during the PETE&C Conference in early February. For additional details on this event go to this link.

Additional information on the PA Invention Convention can be found here on it's new site.

If you have any questions please contact Lori Rodgers at lrodgers@iu28.org.

Registration is open for the Governor’s STEM Competition. All commonwealth public and non-public high schools, Career and Technical Centers, Charter Schools, and home-schooled students are invited to participate in the virtual 2025 Governor’s STEM Competition. Click here to view the ebook for the competition with addition details.

The Governor’s STEM Competition requires student teams to use the engineering design process while researching, designing, and then presenting a device or project that can make the quality of life better for Pennsylvanian’s. Teams must collaborate with a local member of their community or a business and industry partner to help identify a challenge faced by Pennsylvanian’s along with designing a solution to that challenge. The Governor’s STEM Competition will provide teams with:

• an authentic experience that applies skills learned in and outside the classroom,
• opportunities to learn new skills or refine existing skills desired for careers in STEM
• an opportunity to explore career pathways.

Registration for the competition is currently open for teams of five students in grades 9 – 12, the link can be found here. A team advisor must complete the registration form for all students participating in the competition by December 23, 2024. The top 20 teams will advance to the state competition on PSU Main Campus on April 29th & April 30th.

All important dates and competition information may be found on the Governor’s STEM Competition website.

• Logo Contest Submission Closes: November 28, 2024

• Registration Form Closes: December 23, 2024

• Project Submissions Due: January 27, 2025

• Judging Timeframe for Round 1: February 3, 2025, to February 25, 2025

• Top 20 Prototypes Announced: March 7, 2025

• State Finals: April 29-30, 2025

If you have additional questions, contact your local intermediate unit or email govstemcomp@pattan.net.

The event will be hosted at the Elderton High School gym, and will include students in grades 4-8. The 24 Math Challenge is a card game that contains various numbers, and the main goal of the game is to do math calculations (add, subtract, multiply and divide) to reach the answer of 24.

Districts have a set number of seats; however, if districts do not participate that will open additional seats for interested schools. There is a $8 registration fee for each student that participates, which will be billed to the district after the registration deadline of April 30, 2026. This fee helps to cover the cost of the lunch provided to participants and proctors, as well as medals for the top 3 participants from each grade span (Grade 4, 5/6 and 7/8).

Teachers bringing students are asked to proctor one of the tables, or bring at least one proctor with them. This competition cannot take place without table proctors. Registration starts at 9:30 am, with the competition starting at 10:00 am. All competitions should conclude by 2:00 pm at the latest. In the past we have been done by 1:00-1:30 pm.